The present invention relates to operations of a multiple dynamo-electric machine part winder of the type described in copending, commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/695,835, filed Aug. 7, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,896, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, which describes the simultaneous wounding of multiple armatures. In particular, this invention relates to handling wire breakage and overflow in a multiple dynamo-electric machine part winder.
There is always an interest in achieving high rates of productivity in a manufacturing line. In a manufacturing line for dynamo-electric machine parts it is customary for parts to travel along a conveyor, alongside of which are disposed various workstations for further processing. In order to increase productivity it is important to minimize the time these workstations have to wait for parts. Accordingly, it is important that the manufacturing line is not completely stalled due to wire breakage or overflow resulting from wire being wound out of the core slots at a multiple armature winder, and for it to be simpler and faster to restore a multiple armature winder to full operation after such a breakage or overflow.
Production time is lost when a wire breaks and successive rotations of the corresponding flyer causes extra wire to be dispensed in an uncontrolled manner. This uncontrolled delivery of wire results in undesired wire waste as well as potential jamming, each requiring time consuming and laborious operator intervention to restore the winder to normal operating conditions.
Similarly, an overflow caused by wire wound out of the slots can impede proper operation of the winder. When wire has been wound on the external surface of the laminations, as occurs in the case of an overflow, rotation of the armature around its longitudinal axis in order to position its slots in relation to the winding guides to receive the wire can result in jamming of the common motor which is causing the rotational movement.
Typically, in the event of such an occurrence--e.g., wire breakage or overflow--the entire machine is stopped until an operator intervenes to restore the feed of the broken wire in the flyer which was dispensing it, resulting in stalling the production line.
It would be desirable to be able to provide a method and system for allowing the winder to continue to wind armatures and therefore avoid a total loss of production which would otherwise occur during the time which passes between breakage or overflow of the wire and intervention of an operator to restore normal winding conditions.
It would also be desirable to be able to provide a method and system for maintaining the winder in a way which will allow the operator to easily restore normal winding conditions after a wire breakage or an overflow has occurred.